American Made: Reality-based Fantasy

Another real-life murderous criminal conspiracy turned into cagey comic Hollywood blockbuster with all that this entails, including, but not limited to: shallow, superficial characters pumped with botox, canned laughter, glamorized crime and ridiculous happy endings. And I haven’t even seen it yet!

But I know something about this story, quite a bit actually. That is, about the real story, that took place in Mena, Arkansas, among other big and small towns in the jurisdiction of the Dixie Mafia. In fact, in ‘conspiracy’ circles it’s a huge, old story. Old as in, decades old, first surfacing around the time just before the Iran-Contra hearings, you know those televised ‘trials’ kind of similar to the OJ Simpson trials only starring Oliver North, where we all witnessed the charade of our justice system live on prime-time. I was a teenager.

I watched about it on TV and in the newspapers for about a decade and in that time my father moved to Mena, AR with my half siblings, and eventually came to marry a local woman and eventually still, to lease space at that airport. I’m not saying they or anyone they know have anything to do with these crimes and coverups, only that for me there was an added interest. I mean, it’s a super small town, about 5,000 people, which I would take as nothing more than odd coincidence and just write it off, expect that I got curious, which led to reactions I did not at all expect.

Over the next few posts I’ll be recounting some of this, as well as providing additional documentation to demonstrate that unlike what is stated in the below New York Times article, this story is most certainly not “based on a true lie.” It’s based on a true conspiracy.

Lemons, Terry and Fullerton, Jane “Perot Called Clinton About Mena Inquiry” ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE, April 19, 1992 “Bill Clinton to discuss the allegations of cocaine trafficking on behalf of the Contras in Mena.”

Morrison, Micah, “Mena Coverup? Razorback Columbo to Retire,” WALLSTREET JOURNAL May 10, 1995, p. A18 “Recounts the efforts of Arkansas State Policeman Russell Welch to investigate Mena, and the career troubles which ensued.”

I have several pages of these articles compiled, as well as some personal anecdotes to share along with them, I do hope you’ll come back to try to gather what might most likely be behind the reality-based fantasy blockbuster starring the legendary Tom Cruise, Scientologist extraordinaire.